Campylobacter Infection as a Trigger for Guillain-Barré Syndrome in Egypt

BACKGROUND: Most studies of Campylobacter infection triggering Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) are conducted in western nations were Campylobacter infection and immunity is relatively rare. In this study, we explored Campylobacter infections, Campylobacter serotypes, autoantibodies to gangliosides, and GBS in Egypt, a country where Campylobacter exposure is common. METHODS: GBS cases (n = 133) were compared to age- and hospital-matched patient controls (n = 374). A nerve conduction study was performed on cases and a clinical history, serum sample, and stool specimen obtained for all subjects. RESULTS: Most (63.3%) cases were demyelinating type; median age four years. Cases were more likely than controls to have diarrhea (29.5% vs. 22.5%, Adjusted Odds Ratio (ORa) = 1.69, P = 0.03), to have higher geometric mean IgM anti-Campylobacter antibody titers (8.18 vs. 7.25 P<0.001), and to produce antiganglioside antibodies (e.g., anti-Gd1a, 35.3 vs. 11.5, ORa = 4.39, P<0.0001). Of 26 Penner:Lior Campylobacter serotypes isolated, only one (41:27, C. jejuni, P = 0.02) was associated with GBS. CONCLUSIONS: Unlike results from western nations, data suggested that GBS cases were primarily in the young and cases and many controls had a history of infection to a variety of Campylobacter serotypes. Still, the higher rates of diarrhea and greater antibody production against Campylobacter and gangliosides in GBS patients were consistent with findings from western countries

Syngas Production, Storage, Compression and Use in Gas Turbines

This chapter analyses syngas production through pyrolysis and gasification, its compression and its use in gas turbines. Syngas compression can be performed during or after thermal treatment processes. Important points are discussed related to syngas ignition, syngas explosion limit at high temperatures and high pressures and syngas combustion kinetics. Kinetic aspects influence ignition and final emissions which are obtained at the completion of the combustion process. The chapter is organized into four subsections, dealing with (1) innovative syngas production plants, (2) syngas compressors and compression process, (3) syngas ignition in both heterogeneous and homogeneous systems and (4) syngas combustion kinetics and experimental methods. Particular attention is given to ignition regions that affect the kinetics, namely systems that operate at temperatures higher than 1000 K can have strong ignition, whereas those operating at lower temperatures have weak ignition. Keywords: Pyrogas Pyrolysis Ignition Syngas Compression GasificationacceptedVersio

Minho affective sentences (MAS): probing the roles of sex, mood, and empathy in affective ratings of verbal stimuli

Author's personal copyDuring social communication, words and sentences play a critical role in the expression of emotional meaning. The Minho Affective Sentences (MAS) were developed to respond to the lack of a standardized sentences battery with normative affective ratings: 192 neutral, positive, and negative declarative sentences were strictly controlled for psycholinguistic variables such as number of words and letters, and per million word frequency. The sentences were designed to represent examples of each of the five basic emotions (anger, sadness, disgust, fear, happiness) and of neutral situations. These sentences were presented to 536 participants who rated the stimuli using both dimensional and categorical measures of emotions. Sex differences were also explored. Additionally, we probed how personality, empathy and mood from a sub-set of 40 participants modulated the affective ratings. Our results confirmed that the MAS affective norms are valid measures to guide the selection of stimuli for experimental studies of emotion. The combination of dimensional and categorical ratings provided a more fine-grained characterization of the affective properties of sentences. Moreover, affective ratings of positive and negative sentences were not only modulated by participant’s sex, but also by individual differences in empathy and mood state.Together, our results indicate that, in their quest to reveal the neuro-functional underpinnings of verbal emotional processing, researchers should consider not only the influence of sex, but also of inter-individual differences in empathy and mood states, in the response to the emotional meaning of sentences.The authors gratefully acknowledge all the participants who collaborated in the study, and Vera Matos for her help with data acquisition. This work was supported by Grant Numbers IF/00334/2012 and PTDC/MHNPCN/3606/2012, funded by the Portuguese National Science Foundation (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [FCT], Portugal) and FEDER (Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional) through the European programs QREN (Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional) and COMPETE (Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade), awarded to A.P.P. Additionally, it received support from Grant Number EXPL/MHCPCN/0859/2013, awarded to A.P.S. by FCT and cofunded by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio